With the advent of "wet" installation of fasteners such as bolts, rivets, etc. into drilled holes whereby a semi-liquid or viscous material such as a corrosion inhibiting solution or a sealant is placed between the confronting surfaces of the fastener and sidewall of the hole or opening, and the combination of such practice with the available and known automatic drilling and fastener installation macines, most of the prior art devices involve the concept of placing such liquid or sealant in the hole or on the sidewall thereof before fastener installation as shown in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,350,774 issued Nov. 7, 1967 and the Douglas U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,167, issued Apr. 23, 1968.
Notwithstanding such combination of the principle of "wet" fastener installation with either the specialized drilling equipment as in the Douglas Patent or the automatic drilling and installation equipment as shown in my prior patent, such combinations have limitations. For example, with the Douglas arrangement in FIGS. 9 and 10, there is an inherent limitation in that the hole pattern must be linearly and uniformly spaced. Similarly, in my prior cited patent, there is an inherent prolongation or delay in the machine cycle time in that after completion of the hole drilling operation, insertion of the fastener must await application of the sealant in the hole and thereby ceates a delay in the machine cycle time.